In all levels of red-ball cricket, coaches expect their openers to bat time, preferably give the first hour, if not the first session, to the bowlers, and to bat big. Yashasvi Jaiswal ticked all these boxes and more on Friday.
By nature, the 23-year-old left-hander is an aggressive batter – his Test strike-rate is an impressive 66.22 after 25 games – but he is not one-dimensional or single-gear. His first Test knock was the earliest proof that he could graft and grind out a long innings; Jaiswal batted for nearly eight and a half hours and negotiated 387 deliveries while carving out 171 against the West Indies in Roseau in July 2023.
Several of his subsequent impactful essays have been entertainingly rapid, though in the last few months, he has displayed admirable restraint to atone for ungainly rushes of blood. It’s worth remembering from time to time that he is still only 23 and therefore is allowed the occasional indiscretion. But when he casually throws it away like he did at Lord’s in July when he attempted an ambitious pull off Jofra Archer in the second over of India’s abortive chase of 193, it is inevitable that the knives will be sharpened.
Jaiswal responded to criticism from within and outside with a three-hour 58 in his next visit to the crease, in Manchester, reiterating that he can buckle down, cut out the frills and bat out of character if so needed. That wasn’t quite the pressing need at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, but the opener felt he owed his team, and himself, several runs after looking a gift horse in the mouth in Ahmedabad.
In the first Test, he had breezed to 36 off 54 balls, seven fours, when he got carried away, trying to manufacture a cut to a ball too close to his body and edging to the wicketkeeper. He knew it wouldn’t hurt the team, but he was hurting because of his casualness, which he was determined to correct in his next hit.
In the two practice sessions leading up to the Test, Jaiswal spent numerous minutes at the nets, approaching with the same intensity as a match. There were no fancy strokes, no frills, no playing to the gallery, just a bloody-mindedness that suggested the hurt hadn’t gone away, that a big one was in his plans.
To no one’s surprise, the big one materialised on day one of the second Test, powering India to a position of huge strength. Jaiswal began atypically even as KL Rahul batted like his opening partner; the right-hander dominated a stand of 58, smashing five fours and a six in his 54-ball 38. When Rahul was dismissed, Jaiswal was on a stately 20 off 51.
By now, he had got his eye in, he knew what the pitch was like (few demons, if any) and what threat levels the bowlers possessed (minimal to non-existent). The shifting of gears happened suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped on. The expansive drives started to flow, the flamboyant cuts came in a rush, and various hues of the sweep were unfurled. His first 50 took 82 deliveries; the second, which brought him his seventh Test ton, came off only 63 balls. From 100 to 150 spanned 79 deliveries as the ball got softer and stroke production wasn’t as inviting. As far as the pacing of an innings goes, this was near-perfect.
His unbeaten 173 – surely, there is more to follow – is the fifth time Jaiswal has converted a century into a 150-plus knock. That’s a staggering proportion; among Indian openers, only Virender Sehwag (14) and the great Sunil Gavaskar (12, though his highest Test score of 236 not out came from No. 4) have more such efforts, while M Vijay, the stylist from Tamil Nadu, converted four of his 12 centuries to at least 150.
Jaiswal’s penchant for big knocks is now an open secret. Last year, he became the third Indian after Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli to smash double-hundreds in successive Tests. His greed is unabated – 161 in Perth in November, now 173 and counting. For someone pigeonholed as an aggressive opener with a high-risk approach, his ability to uncork daddy hundreds with consummate ease is second to none.
Friday’s knock was an abject lesson in shot selection and the uncanny understanding of when to go on the attack and when to hold back. He could have taken on the bowling and perished in the process, and no one would have complained, but Jaiswal wanted this knock badly as penance for his indiscretion a week back. Maybe some of it will rub off on Rahul, who has topped 150 just twice despite cracking 11 hundreds.